


Acceptance

by Comrade Lucia (Quantin_of_the_Lethe)



Category: Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Claus Lives (Mother 3), Coming Out, Friendship, Gen, Hallucinations, Hearing Voices, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Samus is a good mom, Schizophrenia, Trans Female Character, Trans Girl Lucas (Mother 3), Trans Girl Samus Aran
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29820864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantin_of_the_Lethe/pseuds/Comrade%20Lucia
Summary: Lucia prepares for her first fights since coming out, which means coming out to the other fighters.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	1. New Introductions to Old Friends

"What if they hate me?"

"Nonsense, they'll love you."

"Kumatora's right, Lucia. You don't have anything to worry about," Duster said. "You got this."

"But this is my first time coming out to them."

"You came out to us!"

"That's different. And in case you haven't noticed, it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing with everyone else here." Lucia adjusted her skirt, making sure her neckerchief was on straight, her uniform ironed out, her hair brushed out. Yeah, being pretty didn't really matter when she was in the arena, but she was representing more than just herself this time. This was her first fight after coming out. She was fighting for herself, Claus, her family, her city, the life she'd built. She felt like she was going to keel over and vomit.

The only one on her wavelength, as usual, was her brother. Instead of giving her platitudes, he just looked pensieve, his red eye whirring at a million miles an hour.

"Can I have some alone time with my sister?" he said quietly. "I think...she's overwhelmed."

* * *

When they were out of earshot, he held her tightly.

"Hey, whatever the voices are saying right now, you're so much stronger than them."

"I can't tell them about that, I can't, I can't, I can't..."

"I know, and you don't have to," he said soothingly. "You shouldn't be expected to disclose that to people. Especially people you don't really know."

"I mean, I could tell Ness...we used to be close..."

"I think you should pace yourself, Luci. You're already doing something incredibly huge and, beaten as the horse is, brave. You shouldn't put extra stress on yourself."

She sighed. The twins sat down.

"You're gonna get grass stains on your socks."

"I don't care." She was avoiding his face, like she always did when she was feeling emotionally raw or vulnerable. The cold air stung a little bit, but it was okay. Her body felt very hot, and her skin prickled from overheating.

"It feels so weird, Claus."

"What does?"

"The idea of being so...visibly trans."

"You're gonna be an inspiration to so many."

"And it's weird to think about. I've never thought of myself as an inspiration."

"Really?" he asked. "You're a huge inspiration to me."

She turned her head slowly. "I'm...I'm *what*?" He had that slight knowing smirk, the one that she hated and loved at the same time, the one that he always wore when he wanted to say, "you know I'm right".

"I said what I said."

"Well, yeah, but I, I don't understand."

"You encouraged me to be myself, Luci. You've helped me come to terms with...with myself. It's been really rough, like, so hard. But like, I...I dunno. Every once in a while, I think about when we had that battle. At the End of Things. And you held me in your arms, and I could see you had changed, and not just in the obvious way. You had the look of a warrior. Someone who'd been cast into the depths of Tartarus and, Hades be damned, clawed her way out with nothing but her bare hands and sheer gumption. And all for...all for me. Someone who does things like that for those they love is *inspiring*, Lucia. You're the strongest person I've ever known. And I know you don't *feel* strong. I don't feel strong, either. But here we are. You've still managed to do so much for so many people. And if people can't see that, at least I always will. I'm not going anywhere. Not anymore. I've been separated from you long enough."

She stared at him, dumbfounded. He'd never opened up to her like that before, and she could tell from his face that he hadn't planned on all of that coming out, but it had. "You really...really mean that?" Claus nodded softly. "Yeah. Yeah, Luci, I do. And I've...I've been meaning to say it for a while."

She let that linger in the air for a bit.

"Will you...will come with me?"

"Like...to spectate? Your first fights after coming out? I'd be honored." He smiled with his usual crooked grin. "But we should probably tell the others first."

* * *

At the arena, they parted ways, Claus to the stands, Lucia to the lockers. She paused, the weight of her gym bag seemingly increasing by a million pounds. _Come on, you can do this. Just like last time. Except, you know, you're a girl now. Yeah, there is that._

They'd _massively_ upgraded the facilities since the last time she was here. Each fighter had a dedicated locker space now, the floors weren't made of carpet, but a slightly springy, rubber-y material. The room didn't smell like an ancient bowling alley. Being in here no longer felt like she was in a horror game. The room was also smaller now. Because of how many people now participated in the fights, they had to break the lockers into several smaller ones. She'd deliberately arrived long before she knew the next few people would be arriving. She wanted to get all of her stretching, changing, anything out of the way before they got here.

She set her bag down neatly in the locker still marked LUCAS, next to the one marked NESS. She taped over it and wrote LUCIA, with a heart over the I for max cheesiness. Her old uniforms still hung in their place, unchanged from when she had last touched them. She took them down, opened up her bag, and replaced them with the kits she'd made herself, basically color variants on her sailor suit. She taped some memoribilia she'd brought specifically for this--a photo of her and Claus, a photo of her, Claus, Kumatora, Duster and Boney, her mother's hairclip she'd worn when she first came out. Now it felt a little bit more like home. Except it wasn't. Her hands trembled. No matter how hard she tried, the anxiety was overwhelming.

As she stretched, she felt her body slowly remold itself into fighting shape. She remembered Claus's tips when he taught her how to fight more effectively. Keep loose, don't tense your muscles, be ready to move at a millisecond's notice. She wondered how practice would go. Ness was her usual practice partner, and sure, Ness was sweet, but she had honestly no idea how he'd react to one of his best friends now being a girl. I mean, it shouldn't be an issue, right? He fought alongside Paula during his save-the-world ordeal, and Lucia and Paula were good friends. But she knew firsthand that being trans came with extremely high risks. Friends had been lost. She really hoped Ness wouldn't be one of them.

Deep in thought, she didn't notice Samus enter. "Hey, kid," she said, carrying a small bag and the world's most dangerous suitcase. Her hair was tied up in a luscious ponytail, wearing workout pants and a shirt that said KRAID'S SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS--CLASS OF 1994. "Haven't seen you around before."

Great. The last person she wanted to be anxious around was Samus.

"H-hey," she replied nervously. Samus had always been a sort of celebrity crush, and that only intensified now that they worked out together. Then again, who _didn't_ have a crush on Samus? She'd wanted to grow her hair out because of Samus. She wished she looked like Samus. She wished she had tree-trunk legs like Samus, a strong, noble face like Samus, lithe yet powerful arms like Samus...

*God, girls are great,* she thought, shaking herself out of the stupor, realizing her eyes had glazed over.

"So, you a new fighter?"

"N-no." _Is Samus really the first person I'm coming out to?_

"Oh, really? Then who--" Her eyes narrowed as she studied the girl more, then widened considerably once she noticed the nameplate above her locker.

"Lu...Lucas?"

"Yeah, uh, hi, Samus," Lucia said, laughing nervously. "It's, uh, Lucia now. I'm, uh, a girl. Now."

In one fluid bound, she materialized in front of the girl, and for a hot second her heart was filled with sheer terror and awe at the same time. All of 6'4", she towered over Lucia like Lucia did over ants. She felt herself get weak in the knees. She would've fainted, had Samus not wrapped her in a hug worthy of a boa constrictor.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA! I'm so _proud_ of you, Lucia! You know, I'm one, too. A transgirl." Lucia's brain malfunctioned. Someone...someone else? Like her? Her heart rate slowed down considerably.

"R-really?"

"Yeah! I'm always here for you, dear. If you need any help, ever." She tossed Lucia a small device that she immediately recognized as a primitive shortwave radio. "Or even if you don't. Not like I'm doing much these days." She gave her a wink and smile. "Say, help me stretch, will you? You know I have trouble with my hamstrings."

"Uhh...sure."

She knew what was up, so she tried to distract Lucia with small talk.

"Lots of new participants recently."

"Yeah, I noticed. It'll be...interesting."

"Ness should be here soon. Then you can get to practice."

"Hm. Yeah." Her mind got lost in anxiety again, until Samus let out a yelp.

"Oh! Sorry, I--"

"It's okay, just try not to lose focus while pressing on my legs like that, m'kay? Great way to pull a muscle. What are you thinking about, anyway?"

"Just, nervous, y'know?"

"Oh. Right." She stood up, starting her calisthenics. "I assume you've already stretched?"

"Yes."

She sighed. "Look, Lucia..." She sat down next to her. "I can't say it's gonna be easy, or painless, or without problems. Trust me. You're right to be nervous. But I'm here for you. However you need." She smiled at the girl, and she could tell it was genuine. Then again, she wasn't sure if the bounty hunter was capable of _ingenuine_ emotion. Wore her feelings front and center, that one.

"Thanks, Samus."

"Oh, please. Call me Sam."

"Sam. Sam. Sam, call me Luci."

"Luci?"

"Yeah, it's what my...it's what my family calls me."

"Okay! No problem, Luci!"

The locker room door opened. It was Ness.

"Ness! You're here early!" Samus said, throwing a cautious look Lucia's direction.

"Mm, yeah. Had nothing else going on tonight, so decided to just hang out here. Maybe get some early practice in. Be nice if Lucas showed up, but..." He grimaced with a sadness. "I don't know. I haven't heard from him in so long." Samus and Lucia watched carefully as he went over to his locker. He put his stuff away, got dressed into his practice wear which Lucia could only describe as "Middle American athlesiure", and started stretching. Then he noticed the locker next to him. "Huh?" he wondered. "What--"

He looked at the photo front and center, of who he knew to be Claus, but he was with a girl, about his height, with flowing blonde hair, kept with a red hairband, wearing a pink and yellow sailor suit. They were smiling. Claus looked very different from what Ness remembered--his left eye was now blood red, his smile jagged with fangs, and his left arm was made completely out of metal. And that girl. _Could it be...?_ Then he noticed the different outfits hanging up. And the hairclip, and the family photo. The nameplate didn't say LUCAS. It said LUCIA.

He turned around. Samus had her arm protectively around the girl, who he immediately recognized as the girl from the photos. She was trembling.

"Hey, Lucia?" He mispronounced her name, as _loo-see-uh_ instead of _lyoo-shuh_ , but at least he was trying. He tried putting his hand on her shoulder. She immediately recoiled, and he withdrew it. "Hey, hey," he said calmly, kneeling in front of her. Her eyes were not happy like in the photo. They were filled with fear, and tears.

"Did you really think I wasn't going to accept you?"

She nodded softly.

"You're one of my best friends, why wouldn't I?" He paused, realizing the answer to his own question. "Look...you've always been my friend, and that's not gonna change at all. We're still gonna practice like always, fight like always, be buds like always. And if anyone gives you trouble, I have your back." He smiled, holding out his hand. "Now, let's go practice. Tourneys tonight. It's gonna be a gauntlet."

"Thanks, Ness." She smiled back, and looked at Samus one last time before entering the training room. She gave her an encouraging thumbs-up.

She took a deep breath, and entered the room.


	2. Versus Samus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucia's first tournament fight is against her new mother, and it doesn't go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you read this, it's important for me to note that all descriptions of visions, voices, and hallucinations experienced by Lucia in this fic are ones based on my own. My other fic First Night Home is a slightly more accurate depiction of these same hallucinations.

About an hour later, Lucia returned to the locker room, fell on the floor, covered her face with a towel, and screamed.

"Normally I'd chalk this up to you being out of practice, but that was a rough one," Ness groaned, massaging his left side. "One-off matches usually aren't that daunting."

"It's not that I was _bad,_ I did all the right things, my timing was just off the entire damn time," she said, thoroughly miffed. "It felt like I was moving through molasses."

"Well, you _did_ get boned during that one items match. Ashley annoys the hell out of me, too."

"Shame, 'cuz we'd probably get along outside of the ring."

"Yeah, she's cool."

"Ughhhhhh. How much longer until the tourney?"

He checked his phone. "About...fifteen minutes?"

She sat up, making a face. "I hope it's not anywhere as bad. Going up against Zelda twice in a row was unfair."

"But hey, at least she was nice about it!"

"True. Just hard to think about that when you're getting sucked into the Bermuda Triangle for the third time. Palutena, Zelda, Ice Climbers, Olimar, Duck Hunt, Joker. Didn't win once." She let out another loud moan. "How'd your matches go? I know you weren't there for all of mine."

"Not much better. Tonight's been rough, too. I beat Banjo and Ike, but yeah, similar story here. At least we didn't have to fight each other. I might've called it off."

"I'm not _that_ bad, Ness," she said, raising an eyebrow as she put her hands on his sides. "PK Healing."

"Thanks," he said. "And I didn't mean it in that way! Just that I know our fights can get intense and I'm not sure we'd recover fast enough for tourneys. I'd rather save our energy for when it matters than burn it all in a match that doesn't."

"Don't these pool matches help determine our tourney placement?"

"Yeah, but No Contests don't count towards that."

"We're probably going to be near the bottom."

He sighed. "Yeah, probably. Meaning we're getting chucked into the meat grinder head-first."

"Well, at least I get to hang out with you while I get my ass shipped off to Pluto. How's Samus doing?"

"Really well, per usual. She wanted to see your match against Palutena, but another match was called No Contest and she was up."

"Good. That was my worst match. I've never been tossed aside like that before."

"FIGHTERS!" came the voice of the announcer. "Tournament placements have been announced." A large man in a suit came into the locker, taped up three large sheets of paper, and left without saying a word. Ness and Lucia were the first ones there.

"I got Sonic," he said, gritting his teeth. "Nothing against the guy, it's just gonna be a rough fight."

Lucia looked for her name. She wasn't in Ness's bracket, thank God. So she moved to the next one. Scanned up and down. Not there. She then moved to the next bracket. Her heart sank. It was a field of 32, a big one, and she'd been seeded absolutely last.

LUCAS had been hastily struck through, with LUCIA written in pencil over it. And above her name was ZERO SUIT SAMUS.

Ness caught his friend's face, and saw what was making her despondent. "Oh..." he said, in a small voice. "Maybe...maybe she'll, like, go easy on you? Or something?"

"No. She won't," she said. "She has no reason to."

"FIGHTERS TO THEIR RINGS!"

"I have to go now," she said, with all the air of someone walking to their execution.

"Hey, I'll be here for you afterwards. I don't think I'm making it past the first round."

She straightened out her skirt, pulled up her socks, made sure her shoes were tied, and took the first step towards her fate.

* * *

Of course the stage had to be Magicant. She'd, of course, never been Ninten's Magicant. This was only a virtual projection of what Magicant looked like. But she imagined it to be a rather peaceful place, a place of healing. Quite the opposite of how it was used, which was as a place of incredible violence.

On the other side, she saw Samus loosening up, eyeing Lucia exactly how she expected she would: as another opponent. The warmth that had been in her eyes before was gone. It was time for work.

_I am going to die._

_Yes, you are._

She knew that voice. _No, no, no, no, now is *not* the time!_

_Is it ever time to die? Didn't we warn you? We're gonna make your life a living hell. And what better opportunity? Do you *know* what your newfound mother figure is capable of? What she's done?_

Samus came out firing, catching Lucia completely off guard. "PK MAGNET!" she yelled, barely managing to absorb the opening salvos.

_Just because you're not on Tazmily doesn't mean we can't see you._

_Go away!_ Samus came at her with the Plasma Whip. "Shield!" she yelled, and jumped out of the shield, landing a couple of jabs. Samus responded with a roundhouse kick.

_Ow._

_She's slaughtered entire races. You're nothing to her. A mere housefly. Easily ensnared._

Butterfly kick. Butterfly kick. Legsweep.

_She's doing our work for us._

_GO. AWAY!_ Was Samus somehow amplifying their voices...? No. They were taking advantage of her state. She couldn't afford to make a single slip-up. Her night of bad timing was not only threatening her early elimination, it was a danger to her and Samus's safety. When she wasn't in control of herself, there was no guarantee of what would happen.

For her part, Samus knew exactly what she needed to do: stay in the air. Lucia had some air moves, but she also knew that her execution of those moves tonight was nonexistent. As long as she stayed moving, she could probably pick her off without too much trouble. But she also noticed something. Lucia looked...well, drugged. She was lolling her head around, as if unaware of her surroundings. _Should I continue the match?_ Then she seemed to shake herself out of it, looked around, found where Samus was, and bounded up.

"Hey, I'm worried abo--"

 _Yoink._ She found herself tied up with a Rope Snake. _That's what I get for being sympathetic on the battlefield,_ she muttered as she found herself chucked off the stage. Recovering was no problem, then: "PK FREEZE!" She hung on the ledge as the spell exploded above her. When she got up, she was hit with a heat wave.

"PK Fire!"

 _Well, she’s definitely still Lucia._ But what happened next was definitely _not_ typical Lucia. She yelled, “PK Ground!” and a massive bolt of burnt-orange rocketed towards her, hitting her square in the stomach and burying her head-first into the stage. It hurt worse than any punch she’d ever gotten, and felt like her stomach had been blown out through her back. This led into Lucia’s first combo of the night, as she swung her stick with all of her might, sending Samus towards oblivion for the first stock taken tonight.

“What the _hell_ was that!?” she yelled. The girl looked dazed. “I...don’t know. I’ve...I’ve never done that before…”

“Okay, well, don’t do it again. I’m gonna be feeling that next month.”

The sky turned blood red. Lucia’s consciousness crumbled as the Watchers descended, filling her ears with a dreadful howling. But to Samus, it was like watching someone trying to pilot a mech for the first time. Lucia’s attack accuracy got worse, and then picked up dramatically. She was landing her hits, and it was incredibly hard to stop. But something about this didn’t seem right. It didn’t feel like she was fighting Lucia. It felt like Lucia was somewhere else entirely.

Tether grab. PK Smash Geyser. PK Fire. PK Fire. PK Freeze. PK Thunder. Lucia was hurling everything she had at the three dark figures towering over her, but none of them seemed to reach them as she felt herself fading, and fading fast. "Come on!" she screamed. "Is that all you got, you bastards!? I've taken down _gods!_ I will rip out your pancreas with a rusty spoon and feed it down your dislocated jaws!" She swung blindly, and connected with something that let out a startled shriek.

They could be hit. They could be _hurt._

"PK STARSTORM!" A cavalcade of astral energy rained down, drowning the figure she'd been beating to within an inch of its life, and it vanished in a burst of dark energy. She turned towards the other two.

"SEE WHAT I'M CAPABLE OF? YOU ARE _NOTHING_ BEFORE ME! BOW BEFORE YOUR MASTER!"

The figures stood there like a massive statue, and Lucia was unsure if they even heard what she'd said. But she didn't care. This was months, even years of rage coming to the surface, rage at how these things had kept her cowed and scared, visiting her in the night.

"PK SMASH GEYSER!" It let out a terrified moan. "PK BLOW!" It started to keel over. Time for the final strike.

"PK FREEZE!"

The figure exploded, and the sky started to scream. Loud foghorn noises bellowed. The world faded from view completely, and the empty landscape of Magicant disappeared.

* * *

“PK Healing.”

She felt a gentle heat against her entire body, a quiet thrumming as she felt her brain fog clear, the darkness subside, her ability to stay in the Now return. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see the badly beaten but still kind face of Samus to the right of her. To her left was Ness, healing her.

“Oh, thank God, she’s alive!”

“Alive?” She looked around. “What do you mean, of course I--”

“You blacked out,” came Sonic’s voice. “When we got in here, you were unconscious in Samus’s arms. We didn’t know if you were breathing.”

“What happened?” Ness asked.

"I...I don't know. Well, that's not true. But...I don't want to say."

"With the things you were screaming at me, I can only imagine why," Samus said in the tone that Hinawa would sometimes use when she would catch her eating raw cookie batter.

"The things I was...screaming...at you?" Lucia stomach twisted. "Oh, oh no, oh gods--"

"Shhhhh, sh, sh, sh," she said. "You have a few minutes to rest before the next round."

"Next round? But I lost."

Awkward silence.

"No," Sonic told her. "You won."

"I...what?"

"Beat the everloving hell out of me," Samus finished. "Ness's magic is something else, but every bone in my body hurts."

"I'm...I'm so sorry, I--I need to rest." She held back tears. _What have I done?_ "Please. For five minutes."

And she closed her eyes in peace. The voices were quiet. For now.

"You should talk to her when she wakes up," Ness said. Samus nodded, and gently tucked some errant hairs.

"I will."

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I've written a dozen fics featuring Lucia at this point without writing a Smash Bros fic. Well, here goes. Hope it's good!


End file.
